What started as a few aches and pains ended with the most devastating diagnosis for little Waylon Malone: cancer.

In 2011, the 3½-year-old Texan was feeling a bit off, says his mother, Stacy Malone. The pediatrician sent him to the ER after finding abnormalities in his bloodwork. A CT scan picked up a large tumor on his adrenal gland — it came back as stage 4 neuroblastoma, a deadly cancer of the nervous system.

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"It was devastating because I had never known a child with cancer before," Malone told the Daily News. "I didn't even know that childhood cancer existed. All I had ever heard about was leukemia."

Though exceedingly rare — affecting only 650 children in the U.S. per year — neuroblastoma is actually the most common cancer in infants.

After the initial shock wore off, the Malones immediately started Waylon, now 7, on treatment.

"It takes your breath away, and then you just go into fight mode," Malone said.

Waylon first underwent standard treatment at the Children's Hospital of San Antonio: chemo, radiation, stem-cell transplants, and even Accutane (the acne drug is also used to fight neuroblastoma). Two years later, Waylon took part in an unsuccessful experimental trial at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth. Exhausting their options, the family next tried their luck at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. Miraculously, after chemo and an antibody treatment, Waylon was sent home cancer-free in September 2014.

But the joy didn't last: In January, the cancer relapsed in his brain. The Malones' doctor at St. Jude recommended they head to New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which had pioneered a treatment for neuroblastoma that recurs in the brain.

"We knew how great it was," Malone says of the venerated cancer institute. "We knew this was definitely a place we needed to come."

The Malones made the trip up last month and are staying in the Ronald McDonald House, which provides housing for families with sick children.

It's not unusual for cancer to recur in the brain, says Waylon's oncologist at Sloan, Dr. Kim Kramer, because the brain and body operate in different ways. The hospital has been studying these relapses because they often prove fatal.

In 2003, Sloan Kettering's neuroblastoma team discovered an antibody treatment, 8H9, that has been proving wildly successful in kids with brain relapses. The treatment, still in experimental phase, works in tandem with radiation and is injected into the patient's spinal fluid.

"Prior to 2003, all children who had brain involvement of neuroblastoma died," Kramer says. "Since 2003, dozens have been treated with the antibody (and) have been cured. Our longest survivor is a high school football player. It's made a world of difference."

Waylon has so far tolerated his treatment like a champ.

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"You wouldn't have known he's been getting these injections," Kramer says. "He's a real trooper."

The family will return to Texas for part of the month for a break from treatment, but life won't be much easier when they get there: their hometown has been ravaged by the devastating floods currently wreaking havoc on the state.

They'll return June 23 for Waylon's next set of MRIs, which will show if the drug is working. If it is, Waylon will continue to receive injections. If not, Sloan has another antibody regimen at the ready — but they hope to never use it.

"We are really hopeful that this last bit of treatment is enough to stamp out the resistant cells hiding in the brain," Kramer says.

Waylon is old enough to realize that he is a bit different from his classmates — Malone says he gets self-conscious about being bald — so to boost everyone's spirits, the family has been taking in the sights of the city. Like other little boys, Waylon loves chomping down on hot dogs from the street vendor, hailing cabs and admiring the tall buildings.